288 pp. May 1997
paper, ISBN 978-0-8248-1934-7, $19.00
cloth, ISBN 978-0-8248-1682-7, $41.00
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Keywords: |
anthropology
history
sociology
Hawaii
Pacific
Melanesia
Polynesia
Micronesia
textbook |
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Home in the Islands: Housing and Social Change in the Pacific
ed. by Jan Rensel; Margaret Rodman
Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
"Represents an exciting new direction in the anthropology of contemporary Pacific societies--a venture into understanding the complexities and intricacies of the built environment. Well organized and written in an English that eschews jargon and excessive technical language, it should be accessible to a broad audience, both in the Pacific and elsewhere, from architects, urban planners, and social welfare agents to researchers and scholars in the social sciences and history, as well as students, politicians, and the ordinary person." --The Contemporary Pacific
Ordinary houses have extraordinary stories to tell. For more than a century, anthropologists have been recording these sagas in an attempt to uncover humanity's relationship with the common dwelling. Fundamental to the interaction of humans and housing is the way people shape their living spaces, even redefining their purposes and meanings; their houses, in turn, influence how people live their lives and perpetuate the cultural structures that produced a given form of shelter. The stories draw attention to colonial and missionary agendas, local and global economies, environmental disasters, cultural identities, social connections, and family continuity, as well as personal choices. And, as the chapter on homeless Hawaiians shows, even those without houses have stories to tell. Anthropologists, architects, environmental designers, geographers, and historians will welcome this diverse volume on a neglected yet important aspect of change in the lives of Pacific Islanders.
Read the introduction (PDF).
table of contents
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